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Tarantino’s Infringement Lawsuit Against Gawker Is Dismissed

A federal judge has agreed to dismiss a lawsuit by the director Quentin Tarantino that accused Gawker Media of helping to leak his unpublished script, “The Hateful Eight.”

Mr. Tarantino sued over for copyright infringement over a post on Gawker Media’s Defamer website that linked to a file-sharing website, where an unauthorized copy of the script could be read. The headline of the post in January got right to the point: “Here Is the Leaked Quentin Tarantino ‘Hateful Eight’ Script.”

The judge, John F. Walter of Federal District Court in Los Angeles, ruled on Wednesday that Mr. Tarantino’s lawyers had not offered any examples of copyright abuse that resulted from the Defamer article and thus had no basis to make a claim. But before completely dismissing the suit, Judge Walter agreed to let Mr. Tarantino’s lawyers file an amended claim by May 1 with the evidence that supports their assertions.

Heather L. Dietrick, general counsel of Gawker Media, said: “The court’s decision is a great step on the road to protecting the right to link in the context of reporting.” Mr. Tarantino’s lawyer, Martin D. Singer, did not immediately return a request for comment.

In interviews, Mr. Tarantino has described his feeling of betrayal from the leak and said he might scrap the planned film, a Western, that would be based on the script. This week, Deadline Hollywood reported, he staged a reading of the script that included some actors who have worked in his films, and said he is reworking the script with an eye toward perhaps filming it.